


The day Queen Glimmer won the war

by Bagge



Series: Evil Queen Glimmer [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: But in a bad way, Drama, Episode: Destiny, Evil Glimmer, Evil Queen Glimmer, Gen, Machiaellian Glimmer, Power of Friendship, Queen Glimmer (She-Ra), season4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28356909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bagge/pseuds/Bagge
Summary: Friendship is power. No one knows that better than Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon.
Series: Evil Queen Glimmer [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077236
Comments: 12
Kudos: 14





	The day Queen Glimmer won the war

**Author's Note:**

> Nice, friendly and sweet Glimmer gently coaxing Scorpia into potentially apocalyptic actions with the power of friendship is one of the most chilling scenes of the entire show, so naturally I want more. This fic takes place during the final of season four.

"I believe in you, Scorpia."

"We can save everyone, Scorpia."

"You're gonna make a great princess, Scorpia."

"I'll help you, Scorpia. We are in this together, Scorpia. I believe in you, Scorpia." 

_Now connect with the Black Garnet and doom the world, Scorpia_

\- - -

She had nothing left. She had no one left. Catra was just so tired. Tired of fighting, tired of hating, tired of trying, tired of how she had made Scorpia... no, she pushed away that particular feeling.

Funny thing was, now when she was about to loose everything she did not feel all that different from when she had been about to win. Almost as if it had never been about winning or loosing at all. Almost like it had been about... No, she pushed that thought away, too. When Glimmer approached, she felt relief more than anything else.

"Finish it already," she muttered. But Glimmer did not finish it. She just stood in silence. Catra could not read her expression.

"FINISH IT," she screamed. She made a half-hearted swipe at Glimmer, mostly to goad a reaction from her, but again she didn't move. The swipe didn't hit. Catra tried to force herself to her feet, but couldn't bring herself to get further than to her knees. Why couldn't just Glimmer attack her? Taunt her? Show how much she hated her? Catra knew how to deal with hate. She did not know how to deal with Glimmer kneeling down in front of her.

"I don't hate you," she said with soft voice. Her expression was sincere.

"Of course you do," Catra muttered, still not able to muster stronger emotions than tired indignation. "How could you not? after everything I took from you? after everything I did to Ado... Ador..." Her voice trailed off.

"After everything you did to Adora," Glimmer finished the sentence for her. "I do not hate you for that, and neither does she. I think you do, though."

"What do you know of that?" Catra cried, and for a moment she felt the familiar hate burning, bright and all consuming as it used to. "Adora is MY friend. MINE. You can't possibly know..."

"...how it feels to betray her? To have had her as a friend, and lost her? To deep down not be as good a person as she think you is? Maybe I can." She edged closer. "Maybe I know a way for you to win her back." She held out her hand. Catra looked at it like it was a red-hot dagger.

"What are.... you can't possibly... she won't..."

"But she will," Glimmer softly interrupted. "She never stopped loving you, you must know that. She will take you back in an instant if you let her." She put her hand on Catra's. It was so warm. So soft. Glimmer looked her in the eyes. "Please, let her take you back."

Catra screamed. She snatched her hand back, she jumped to her feet, she unsheeted her claws and scratched Glimmer's eyes out... only she didn't. She told herself that she should, but doing so would mean removing her hand from Glimmer's.

Glimmer's hand was so warm and soft.

Catra hadn't realized until just how much she longed to touch someone.

And maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to fight it any more. If nothing truly mattered, why couldn't she stay in this moment, just for a heartbeat?

Catra didn't pull her hand away.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and before she knew it, she had to force herself not to cry.

"You can't... possible make me think you want to be... friends after all I've..."

"Oh, I don't want you to be my friend, silly." Glimmer smiled a coy little smile. "I want you to be my enemy."

Catra tensed up.

"How else could I show Adora that I'm better than you?" Glimmer widened her eyes and made a passable Adora impression.

'Oh, Glimmer, how could you kill Catra just because she tried to kill us all and destroy everything you hold dear multiple times? Don't you know she is my best friend ever, even if she's an evil bi... bad person. I will never forgive you now.' She laughed, and Catra couldn't help but chuckle herself.

"She would, of course," Glimmer went on in her normal voice, "She's an idiot like that. But everything will be much easier if you are still around to prove that _I'm_ the better friend." Catra narrowed her eyes.

"And what's in it for me?"

"You'll have the same opportunity." Catra nodded slowly.

"You really think she would...?"

"Of course she will," Glimmer smiled, a warm trusting smile. "There is only one small thing you need to do for me first..."

She caught Catra's gaze and moved her eyes towards the unconscious Hordak, still stuck under a pillar. Catra nodded. She was on emotionally familiar ground here.

"If I do your dirty work, will you take me to her?"

"Of course I will." Glimmer looked down at her arm, at the first-one's writing that was rapidly spreading over her skin. "There is nowhere in the world I can't take you now.

\- - -

Shadow Weaver was in her garden, sulking. When Glimmer entered she pointedly turned her back to the queen and busied herself with her work. Glimmer stopped a few meters away and waited for the witch to address her. After a few tense moments Shadow Weaver turned around.

"Well, you have finally decided to let me in on your plan? No doubt it has already fallen to pieces and you want me to salvage it for you?"

Glimmer didn't answer. Her skin was crawling with first-one writing and Shadow Weaver could feel the power moving through her. For a moment she forgot about hurt feelings and took a step forward. 

"What happened?" Glimmer looked up and met her eyes.

"Shadow Weaver... what was my father like?" Shadow Weave abruptly stopped in her tracks like she'd been slapped.

"What?"

"You knew him, as a child. What was he like?"

"You never asked me before."

"I never thought I could stand the answer before. Castaspella told me you used him, tricked him, betrayed him.... it was more to it than that, wasn't it?" Shadow Weaver narrowed her eyes.

"He was powerful, if that's what you are asking. More powerful than Castaspella. More powerful than anyone in Mystacor. More powerful than me."

"More powerful than me?"

"A day ago I would have said yes. Now... I'm not so sure."

"I have accessed the Heart of Etheria, Shadow Weaver. I have access to power not wielded on this planet since the days of the first ones."

"Then what use do you have of me?" Glimmer arched an eyebrow. Shadow weaver chuckled slightly.

"Of course, there is always one out of three things, isn't it." Glimmer nodded with a smirk of recognition.

"If you don't seek power, then you seek deniability. You want me to do your dirty work for me." Glimmer shook her head.

"Close, but no. The atrocities committed by queen Glimmer of Brightmoon in order to win the war will not stay hidden."

"How do you plan to deal with that?"

"From a position of strength. I will be the one who won the war, after all." Shadow Weaver smiled.

"I have taught you well."

"I'm a good student."

"If what you are asking me for today is not power, not deniability, that means..."

"Control," Glimmer simply answered. Shadow Weaver nodded.

"Tell me."

"The Heart of Etheria is not only a storage. It's also a weapon. One that's if fired will destroy all of Etheria." Shadow Weaver narrowed her eyes.

"Who is it aimed at."

"The one who is to Hordak as Hordak is to the lowest of Horde soldiers."

"Horde Prime."

"You know him, and not only by name." Shadow Weaver nodded.

"I know many secrets." Glimmer eyed her in silence for a moment.

"Including secrets abut the Heart of Etheria?" Shadow Weaver did not answer, but her silence was full of promises

"You know where it is, don't you? You know how to get to it."

Shadow Weaver kept not answering. A little smile played over her lips.

"If you know all that, then you know why I can't trust the hologram of the first ones," Glimmer went on. "Not without... An ace in my sleeve."

"And why should I help you?" Glimmer arched an eyebrow.

"For the same reason you have helped me so far, obviously."

Shadow Weaver stood up in her full length. She towered over Glimmer.

"You think you know me. That is a mistake." Glimmer looked up at her.

"Adora thinks she knows you, and she would not have me even talk to you. Hordak thought he knew you, and he is dead. I'm not making their mistakes."

For the first time since the conversation started, Shadow Weaver looked visibly shaken.

"Hordak is... dead?" Glimmer took her hand.

"Shadow Weaver... Horde Prime is coming. The weapon of the first one is primed and ready. But the Heart of Etheria will destroy our world if we don't contain it. Please, for my sake, for my father's sake... I need your help. Will you help the daughter of Micah?" Shadow Weaver looked away.

"What would you have me do?" Glimmer looked down on her hands, still holding Shadow Weaver's

"If things would have been different... if it had been my father who stood before you now, what advice would you have given him? What would he have been able to do that good little Glimmer wouldn't?"

A moment of silence, a moment of hesitation, and then...

"Insurance."

Glimmer met Shadow Weaver's eyes. They smiled in mutual understanding.

\- - -

In the temple of the first ones, Adora cried in agony, blind and deaf to the world around her, her entire being was focused on holding back the tide of the terrible, overwhelming power that flooded from the Heart of Etheria. Glimmer walked up to her and looked at her in pity.

"She will never give up, you know," she softly said.

"Her strength of will is admirable, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon," the hologram Light Hope answered. "But it will not change the outcome of this situation."

"People who underestimate Adora tend to be wrong. Spectacularly so."

"I am not people, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon. And I am not wrong." Glimmer studied her in silence for a moment.

"You remind me of my mother, Light Hope."

"That's a sentiment I have heard before."

"I loved my mother... but I could not be her. I tried so hard to be like her. She tried so hard to make me be like her... _program_ me to be like her, you could even say...."

Light Hope said nothing.

"But the proudest day of my life was still when she told me I was not like her, that my own way of doing things worked... were valid... simply because it was my way. And I had her blessing doing it. Do you know what she told me that day?"

"No, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon. I do not have that information in my data banks."

"She told me I had grown beyond my programming. That I could write my own code. That it was _better_ than the code she had given me... not in those exact words, of course, but you get the analogy. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

"Yes. And although I might find your story endearing, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon, the analogy is flawed. I'm a precision instrument of the first one, a purpose manifest in hardware and code. I can not change that."

Glimmer looked at the hologram with unblinking sincerity.

"Mara did."

The entire scene blinked, the background electronic hum rose to a pitch. The hologram froze for several seconds. 

"What did you say?"

"You heard me. She-Ra was designed to be part of your circuitry, but Mara rose above that function."

"Mara _failed_ her function."

"A wise ruler adapts to the circumstance."

The hologram grow to gigantic proportions and towered over Glimmer.

"I Am Not A Ruler, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon. I am a servant. A loyal, dutiful servant. No one is going to sully my rightful place, my rightful remembrance of my true masters."

Glimmer looked at her in pity.

"I miss my mother too."

Light Hope said nothing.

"My best friends hate me now," Glimmer said with calm voice and a sad look at the struggling Adora. "My allies fear me.... do you know why I did what I did?"

"Yes, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon. You told me. To win the war. To end the threat."

"...to not fail my mother. To protect her work. To fulfill her legacy."

"Then you do understand."

"But the thing is, I did things my mother would never have. I went to Shadow Weaver, to Double Trouble, to _you_... I grew beyond her expectations of me, beyond my programming, and I won. She won, but it took me not being her to accomplish that."

"You can't possibly..."

"Light Hope. The enemy of the first ones is here. In orbit. Hordak lured him here by opening that portal... _Mara's_ portal. This is all possible thanks to her. Now their weapon - your weapon - is ready to be fired, thanks to your work. You found She-Ra. You made it possible for all of us princesses to connect to the rune stones. Your purpose is ready to be fulfilled, thanks to you. Thanks to Mara."

"Yes. And it will be fulfilled."

"You will destroy our world in the process."

"That is an acceptable loss."

"Not for me."

"Your consent is not necessary. You have already fulfilled your part of the design, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon."

Glimmer held up her hand. Shadows danced over it.

"I have done more than that."

Light Hope started to speak. She frowned. A heart beat passed. Time enough for a being of Light Hope's processive ability to ask a lot of questions, find a lot of answers.

"The heart of Etheria is compromised," she whispered.

"Yes," Glimmer answered. "The power you have squirreled away throughout the years, intent on using as a weapon. That power did not belong to the first ones. It belongs to Etheria. It belongs to me. And I have conditions on its use." Light Hope looked Glimmer in the eyes.

"You are in no position to make demands."

"And yet I make them. My agent is at the heart in this very moment. Save for my instructions, she will destroy it, and with it your only hope to fulfill your purpose."

"I could destroy you."

"And destroy the connection between the moonstone and the Heart of Etheria? Hardly."

"You would not dare tampering with the heart. One mistake and your planet is forfeit."

"The same fate we would suffer would you have it your way."

"If you meddle with the heart I will not be able to destroy the enemy of the first ones. They will rain destruction upon you."

"If Etheria is destroyed it does not matter to us one way or the other." Glimmer gave the hologram a hard look.

"But it matters to you."

"Fulfilling my purpose is _all_ that matters to me." Glimmer's expression softened.

"We both know that is not true." Her eyes turned to Adora.

"You cared about Mara. You care about Adora. You care about us." Light Hope flickered.

"Were it as you said, what would you have me do, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon?"

"The first ones build a weapon to be fired across the universe, but our enemy is in orbit. You can take him out without destroying the world. All you have to do is... reduce the output. Change the parameters. Change the programming. Like Mara did. Fulfill the first one's purpose, make Mara's sacrifice not be in vain. Surely they would have asked you to do it if they knew the options available to you."

"The destruction would still be considerable."

"That is a prize I'm willing to pay." Shadows seemed to dance around Glimmer as she said it.

"The first ones are gone! There is no one left to give that order, no one left to change my program. I am all that's left."

"Then be their best legacy! Be Mara's best legacy."

Silence.

Then.

"I... can't. I am sorry, administrator Queen Glimmer of Brightmoon. My programming is not in soft, malleable tissue like yours but in hard data crystals. I would need permissions of my masters, and they are not here."

Glimmer put a soft hand on the hologram's. It fizzed slightly with static electricity.

"There is one first one left."

\- - -

Adora knew she couldn't hold back the tide forever, but she had to try. She had to believe that it was worth it, that her pain bought time for Bow and Swift Wind to find Glimmer, to find options to do... something. It had to work. She had to be able to save Etheria... Glimmer... And Catra.

Through the haze of colors flowing through her she heard a familiar voice.

"Adora," Glimmer said. She hunched down in front of her struggling friend. Adora forced herself to look up. Glimmer smiled at her, that soft smile Adora had come to relish. Her skin was alight with first one's writing and Adora saw the terrible power moving through her friend."

"Glimmer," she whispered. Glimmer leaned closer.

"I'm so sorry," she said with the same soft voice. "You were right and I was wrong. You were right to go to Beast Island. You were right to get Entrapta. You were right to try to stop Light Hope. Please Adora, can you forgive me?"

"Yes..." Adora had to force herself to get the words out. She struggled to understand what Glimmer was saying, to make sense of her words through the strain of holding back all the powers of the Heart of Etheria, but these were words she so desperately had wanted to hear. "I forgive you," she managed to say. "Always, Glimmer, always. And I'm so... sorry... about... Angela..." A surge of energy forced her to shut her mouth and focus on her struggles. 

Glimmer put a warm hand on Adora's white knuckles that still held the sword tight.

"Ssssssh. It's all right. My mother's death was not your fault." Tears formed in Adora's eyes.

"Glimmer..."

"You did nothing wrong, Adora. You saved us. And I know you will save us again." Adora made a strained expression.

"Glimmer... I don't know... if I... can."

"Of course you can. You always do. And I know how." Adora met Glimmer's eyes. They were completely black. She saw the first one's writing in them.

"What do you...?" 

"Light Hope can fire the weapon with minimal damage to Etheria. We will be safe, and the Horde will be defeated for good."

"But Mara..."

"Mara is not here. But you are. You can finish what she started."

"Glimmer, please, we can't..."

"Adora... there is someone I need you to meet."

Adora forced herself to follow the direction of Glimmer's gaze. In the other end of the temple, Catra stood. She looked so small. So alone. Her fur was burnt, her face wounded, here eyes filled by tears. She stood alone, gently hugging herself.

"Catra killed Hordak," Glimmer went on. "She saved us all. She's a hero, Adora. The two of you can finally be together..." Doors in her heart that Adora had never admitted were closed flung wide opened. Her eyes filled with tears. Unable to stop herself she started to move a hand from her sword, to reach out to Catra.

"Only, there is a problem," Glimmer went on. Adora froze.

"Hordaks master," she said. "Horde Prime. He is here, in the sky. He has come to conquer. To destroy. To avenge. He will come for her, Adora. He will kill Catra."

Sometime primal, deep in Adora's chest answered with a growl.

"But we can stop him," Glimmer went on in the same friendly, soft, _reasonable_ voice. "Me and Light Hope... we have a plan. But we need your help. We need your permission."

Adora looked at her, tears flowing, muscles straining to hold the sword, hold back the force of the Heart of Etheria. It was so hard to think. So many thoughts and emotions pushing through her brain all at once. There was a voice warning her, telling her that Glimmer was wrong, that she had to resist. But at the same time, she so desperately wanted Glimmer to be right. Glimmer's hand was so warm... And then there was a second hand gently holding her. She looked up and met the tear filled eyes of Catra.

"Please, Adora," she whispered. "Save me."

"What do you need me to do?" Adora heard a voice ask. She realized it was her own.

\- - - 

"Adora!" Bow and Swift Wind had crashed into the temple and took in the scene with a look of horror in their eyes. Bow nocked an arrow and steadied his breathing as he took aim.

Glimmer, power flowing through her like water through a water mill, calmly met his eyes and indicated the crying Adora protectively cradling Catra, oblivious to anything else.

"Don't you want her to be happy?"

Bow did not hesitate for more than a heartbeat.

But that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is my _Magnus Opus_ so to say; the reason I started to write She-Ra fanfic at all. That moment of power as Glimmer went down a dark path and dragged Scorpia with her. In the show Glimmer, bless her noble heart, immediately backed off when she understood that Light Hope had betrayed her. In this fic she doubled down instead.
> 
> Being my darling project, I readily recognize that this little piece is overly indulgent and perhaps not very good. 'Kill your darling', as any decent editor would tell you, and this time I refused to do so. So view this less as a coherent story and more as a window into Glimmer's mindspace during the time she was willing to embrace her inner Evil Queen.


End file.
